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It’s been 25 years since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, killed thousands, leveled New York City’s iconic Twin Towers and damaged the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. While the attacks were carried out on the East Coast, the shockwaves sent ripples across the globe. The effects are still being felt on the Peninsula.
To former Menlo Park Fire Protection District Chief Harold Schapelhouman, the day’s mantra should be, “Never forget, be ready.”
Schapelhouman was a founding member of California Task Force 3, one of the nation’s 28 Urban Search and Rescue teams, headed by the Menlo Park fire district. These teams respond to catastrophic events nationally in collaboration with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“The feds operate, quite honestly, in weeks, months and years,” Schapelhouman told this news organization. “Firefighters operate in seconds, minutes and hours. Nobody’s going to accept that when you call 911, we’re going to be there in an hour. Minutes and seconds count, so that’s our mindset.”
Today, members of California Task Force 3 come from 16 local partner agencies and have a wide variety of specializations, including structural engineers and medical professionals. In 2001, there were only 14 partner agencies.
At the time, Schapelhouman was task force leader of the 70-person team deployed to New York City. He said the team arrived at 2 a.m. on Sept. 17 and immediately got to work preparing equipment.
For the first few days after arriving in New York, Schapelhouman said his team had prepared to assist the New York City Fire Department in case any additional attacks occurred. After that, the team moved to helping recover remains from the World Trade Center’s ground zero — known by first responders as “the pile.” Schapelhouman headed the team’s night shift from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., during which people from outside the official recovery efforts would often come to help search.
Dozens of the 2,977 killed on Sept. 11 had connections to the Bay Area. Portola Valley resident Andy Garcia was aboard United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers rushed the plane’s cockpit to stop hijackers from attacking Washington, D.C. On Sept. 14, 2001, about 200 people gathered in front of Garcia’s house for a candlelight vigil honoring him and the other victims. For the next decade, his wife Dorothy helped host an annual 5K run in his memory.
Other victims included Naomi Leah Solomon, who was raised in Los Altos Hills and graduated from Stanford University in 1971. Solomon was at work in the World Trade Center’s North Tower when the attacks occurred, according to reporting by the Los Altos Town Crier.
Now, 25 years later, eight members of the Santa Clara County Fire Department’s Honor Guard are traveling to New York City for memorial events this week. Fire Capt. Jon Bui, who is a member of the volunteer troop, said Honor Guard members are traveling on their own time and expense, and many are bringing their families this year for the 25th anniversary.
Bui was in his mid-20s in 2001 and said he was inspired to become a firefighter partly because of what he saw in the recovery efforts. The last time he visited “the pile” was St. Patrick’s Day in 2002, and he said he’s looking forward to paying respects at the memorials this year.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re a firefighter in Australia or England, we all do the same job, we help people on their worst day,” Bui said.
“The fact that we lost 343 (firefighters) that day and hundreds more after from the cancer and the dust like that, it’s just a tragedy,” he said, referring to the illnesses suffered by first responders from the toxic air after the attacks.
Locally, there are memorials and community discussions for Peninsula residents to commemorate the attack’s 25th anniversary. The American Muslim Voice Foundation is hosting a multifaith peace picnic and prayer service at 5 p.m. on Sept. 10 at Palo Alto’s King Plaza. The San Mateo Consolidated Fire Department is hosting a remembrance ceremony at 8:45 a.m. on Sept. 11 at Fire Station 21, at 120 S. Ellsworth Ave. in San Mateo.
In recognition of the attack’s 25th anniversary, San Mateo County Supervisor Ray Mueller introduced a resolution to create a firefighting training center for the region, scheduled for discussion at the Board of Supervisor’s Sept. 15 meeting. California Task Force 3 is also looking to create a memorial remembering both terrorist events the team responded to: Sept. 11 and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
Task Force 3 continued supporting recovery efforts until early October 2001, when Schapelhouman said they were demobilized and sent home. He said the situation stressed the gravity of being prepared, having plans in case of emergencies and the importance of maintaining good connections throughout the team.
“9/11 really highlighted this fact that if the New York City Fire Department can be damaged to the point where it was damaged, where a number of its critical specialized functions were damaged or there was no real capacity to respond to another event outside this event — that’s a problem,” he said. “Those are difficult things to think about and difficult things to plan about, but you have to.”
